FIG. 2.

Multi-dimensional motion of healthy rats. At each percent of the gait cycle, the steps of 108 healthy rats are fitted with the smallest mesh that contains 68.27% of the data points in x,y,t space. These individual meshes are then merged to form composite models for the entire gait cycle, shown here. Colored meshes represent stance phase and gray represents swing. (A) Healthy gait is consistent (small mesh volumes) with right/left symmetry. (B) By introducing the third dimension of time (right hindlimb cycle time with initial contact at time 0), limb phasing and interlimb coordination can be observed. The fore- and hindlimb pairs are out of phase whereas the diagonal pairs are in phase.